Map Thread XI

Status
Not open for further replies.
Since I've already dumped this on deviantArt without a write-up... Here it is with a write-up! Enjoy! Feedback of any kind is of course appreciate.

I like it....but how are the Russians still keeping Alaska? They wouldn't plausibly be able to hold on to it for much longer than they did IOTL, TBH, for a variety of reasons, unless gold was discovered before 1880 or something(which is rather unlikely). I mean, an independent Alaska or even a client state similar to Poland or Finland actually could work with the right PODs. But there's no real sense in keeping Alaska as an integrated territory without a Gold Rush, especially with their old British adversaries right next door.
 
This is one of the scenarios that I felt would be better on the map rather than a full blown TL simply because I have to focus on the two TLs that I'm doing right now and I'm having a writer's slump, as opposed to a writer's block.

The Soviet Coup of 1991 goes horribly wrong when the coup plotters try to arrest Yeltsin instead of just ignoring him, which IOTL catapulted him into power. Unfortunately, Yeltsin was killed in the coup plotters' attempted at arresting him, leading to a very violent backlash along with Gorbachev's sudden death (orders gone wrong). Eventually the coup plotters settled for a military junta (initially thought to be temporary) leading around Valentin Varennikov as their leader, though I'm not sure if there will be democracy in the new Russia or plain more autocracy with more competence.

Below: Belarus and Ukraine are temporarily occupied by the junta, and their status would be decided later on.

DifferentPostSovietWorld.PNG
 
Lascupa0788, a couple more things: the Ottomans took over all of Iran at one point? Given the trouble they had extending their power onto the Iranian plateau OTL, it seems a bit unlikely: the Safavids, after all, do predate the POD. And what is the relationship between the Federation and the Egyptians and Iranians nowadays?

Finally (and my pestering has to do with my interest in the map, not nitpickiness, I assure you) what are the three countries between Serbia, Hungary, and Albania? I assume the southmost is Montenegro, but are the other two a divided Bosnia or a Bosnian state and some sort of rump southern Croat state?

best,
Bruce
 

Dorozhand

Banned
This is something I've been working on for a while. It's a diagram of a planetary system:

Huitzilopochtli - Metal-rich Class-B blue star about 8 times the mass of Sol. Bathes everything in the system in a pale-blue glow, a lot of UV radiation, habitable zone very far out but also very wide. Metal rich composition allowed for a good amount of terrestrial planet formation. Rather long estimated lifetime of 7 billion years allowed for native life to actually form and evolve.

Intraxiuhtecuhtlian Asteroids (Scorched Belt) - As the name implies, these asteroids are extremely hot half-molten lava-balls. Correspond roughly to the theoretical "Vulcan Asteroids" once thought to exist within Mercury's orbit.

Xiuhtecuhtli - Innermost planet, about the mass of Terra. Incredibly hot, covered in seas of liquid metals and minerals and bathed in the haze of an atmosphere of Sulphur, Mercury, and Sodium vapour.

Mixcoatl - About the mass of Mercury, and of a similar temperature and composition, though slightly less dense. High albedo makes for a brightly visible body.

Huixtocihuatl - Of great interest to scientists, geologists, and miners alike is this planet, which was apparently once covered in ocean. Orbital instability due to proximity to Teotlale, set off by an impact sent it spiraling disastrously inwards about 2 billion years ago. Once outside of the habitable zone, its oceans boiled off, and all that's left now is an immense, world-spanning salt flat. It's about .85 the mass of Earth and its orbit is extremely offset from the rest of the system's plane. The impact which sent it to its fate also gave it a moon, Nextepehua, the god of ash.

Intrateotlalean Asteroids (Tempest Belt) - Believed to be the ejecta from a large impact on Malinalxochitl which greatly reduced the moon's size, these asteroids are unstable and chaotic. A great hazard to anyone attempting to mine them or even travel through them. It is lucky that Teotlale's three moons and Atlacamani's freakishly large moon acted as impact shields, or life may have been extinguished there.

Teotlale - The first world within Huiztilopochtli's habitable zone, though barely. Bombarded by UV radiation, the harsh blue disc in the sky is an unmerciful mistress. The baked sand is nearly lifeless on the surface, but underground bacteria thrive. Multicellular life tightly hugs little oasis ponds which spring from the earth, and large plants with orange fan-like leaves are as big as life gets even there. The only significant area of surface water are two small lakes almost on top of the north and south poles, each less than about 500 km in surface area and .5 km deep. They are the only places which host significant permanent animal life. Tiny herbivores and shelled, gelatinous cephalopods which evolved in geothermal vents, slowly creeping to the surface over a billion years. Teotlale has no plate tectonics, which probably saved the life as volcanism would have belched forth CO2 and the world may have ended up like Venus.

Teotlale has three moons.
-Nexoxcho
Stained red with iron oxide, spectacular from the surface. Only about 45 km in size.
- Malinalxochitl
About 200 km wide. Used to be larger, but an oblique impact threw off significant mass and created an asteroid belt in the process.
- Chalchiutotolin
This one is interesting. It's about the size of Europa, and has a thick atmosphere. It's covered in lush jungle rainforest which looks like paradise, or early sci-fi's conception of Venus, from orbit. You don't want to go down though, as the comparison to Venus doesn't end there. Everything is poison. The life of the moon uses Hydrofluoric acid as a solvent, and oceans and an atmosphere of the stuff cover the world in a greenish haze. Exobiologists had a field day studying it, and the deaths were almost worth the knowledge that they gained.

Atlacamani - Atlacamani is squarely in the center of the habitable zone, and thus has a mild, temperate climate similar to earth. The planet is .95 the size of earth and slightly less dense, this lighter gravity makes the world a particularly comfortable place to live. Its surface is mostly land, with 40 % covered by seas. Its plate tectonics is somewhat more active than earth's, and this produces higher mountains and lower trenches, there is even a range thrust up by a corona. It is not a metal-poor world, its metal content mostly consists of aluminum, Vanadium, and other lighter metals, with a bit less Iron.

Its biosphere is rich and varied, containing animals, fungi, other phyla harder to define, and plants. As with most plant life in the system, Atlacamani's is bright orange to scarlet. The planet possesses polar, tundra, steppe, temperate, and tropical temperature zones, and rain is very common. Cloud cover and a slightly thicker atmosphere than earth prevent a lot of the harshest of the blue sun's rays from irritating human eyes. This also produces spectacular sunrises. One view of an Atlacamani sunrise, as the azure orb stains the sky with shades of purple, magenta, aquamarine, and maroon is often enough to convince visitors to stay. The day is about 27 hours long, leisurely compared to earth without being oppressive like Teotlale's 38 hour days.

Atlacamani has one moon, but what a moon it is! Chicomecoatl is the size of Ganymede and appears as a spectacular light-brown disc in the night sky, thrice as large as Luna. It even possesses pockets of single-celled life of its own in its soil and deepest caves, and is believed to have once had oceans of liquid water. It was likely created by a gargantuan impact which occurred very soon after the planet's formation, Atlacamani's more elastic materials allowing for it, though barely. The moon accreted more dust after it formed, growing larger still. It is named after a god of agriculture, as it is vital in maintaining Atlacamani's axial tilt of 34 degrees, and its seasons which are created thereby.

Nonohualco - This is the third and final inhabitant of the Goldilocks zone, and is quite frigid. Its land mostly consists of gloomy, windswept tundra, containing cold-resistant life-forms, although oases of warmth near hot-springs on the geologically active world produce pockets of rich biosphere. Its atmosphere is thinner than earth's, about Thibetan levels at the surface, at least tolerable to humans. Its temperature averages 12 degrees Centigrade, but is fairly uniform throughout the world due to geologic activity. Seas cover about 15% of the surface, and teem with life.

Nonohualco possesses two moons. One, Cipactonal, is almost the size of Europa and has an atmosphere similar to the parent world, although its life is more rudimentary. The other, Tepeyollotl, is geologically active like Io due to tidal stress between Nonohualco and Cipactonal, and possesses extremely tall mountains.

Huehuecoyotl - The last of the inner planets, there is very little to say about this Mercury-sized lifeless ball of rock other than a peculiar quantity of Vanadium in its crust.

Intraxochipillian Asteroids (Great Belt) - This is a massive belt of asteroids stretching from the edge of Huehuecoyotl's hill sphere to Xochipilli. The massive gas-giant's tidal forces prevent any bodies larger than Triton from forming. Rich in metals, it is fodder for mining operations.

Xochipilli - A gigantic gas giant 2.3 times the mass of Jupiter, named after the Aztec god of jollity and contentedness. It contains a lot of Methane, which, along with the light of Huitzilopochtli, gives it a staggering bright blue hue. Storms larger than the great red spot rage all across its surface. One is nearly six times the size of Atlacamani. Two spectacular rings orbit the planet, the remnants of a moon collision.
Of its many, many satellites (all but the two largest named after gods of wine), the most interesting are:
Mayahuel - Twice the mass of Callisto, it shepherds the two great rings, riding almost exactly between them.
Patecatl - The smallest body in the system to independently evolve life, it is about the size of Triton. Tidal forces warm ice below its surface, which resulted in a Europa-like ocean forming. Life is very simple, mostly orange algae clinging to the bottom of the ice. Small animals have evolved from polyp fungi at the warmest regions of the equator and at the bottom of the ocean at vents, but reach no more than a decimeter in size.
Camaxtli - A blue moon. Tidal forces between great Xochipilli and the Mars-sized Xolotl result in a geologically active body and significant atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses trap heat, and create a climate almost like earth. The world, .78 the size of earth, is an oasis of life in the cold outer system, oceans covering 82% of the surface and continents rich with great orange forests.
Xolotl - about the mass of Mars, Xolotl is a dry but life-bearing moon. Tidal forces keep it just warm enough, though greenhouse gasses are less concentrated and plants are black, in order to get as much of the star's light as possible.

Ometeotl - A binary gas giant. Two planets, one slightly larger than Jupiter and one a bit smaller, orbit one another at a common barycenter. The larger, Ometeotl A, is pale blue, while the smaller, Ometeotl B, is an aquamarine colour, like Uranus but slightly greener. Both worlds rotate very fast, and have great storms the size of planets.
The moons of Ometeotl are all lifeless except for Ethane covered Xocotzin. It contains lakes of liquid hydrocarbons which, remarkably, have produced fragile colonies of bacteria which use it as a solvent. Xocotzin is also remarkable for another thing. It possesses its own tertiary satellite called Tlazolteotl.

Ehecatl - A gas giant consisting mostly of hydrogen, helium, methane, and, most strikingly, Ammonia. The planet is over 7% Ammonia! How this came to be is unknown, but its consequences shook the world of biology to its core.
Tloxipeuhca, a world about the size of Mars, possesses oceans of liquid Ammonia. These seas have produced an entire fully realized biosphere using Ammonia as a solvent in lieu of water. Ammonia lakes, rivers, storms and hurricanes, and continents covered in Ammonia life! Animals, plants, fungi, and a kingdom of fungi-like animals which use alkali metals and oxygen dissolved in the water to produce energy and recycle waste. Boron-based biochemistry allowed for variable divergences and sped up the process of evolution. Fish, cephalopods, vertebrates, and even land megafauna of phyla and purpose wild and exotic formed. An exobiologist's Eden. It also happens to be one of the only places known with an easily accessible natural supply of Rubidium and Caesium. The moon also has a tertiary satellite of its own.
Perhaps the most staggering thing about Tloxipeuhca is the presence of intelligence. A land-dwelling, radial, vertebrate species with a gelatinous body encased in calcium borate armor plates which used evolved "hands" (branched crinoid-like tendrils) to manipulate its environment, use tools, master combustion (possible on Tloxipeuhca), and spread across the world. Great care is taken not to interfere with their cultural development, only to observe from orbit or with robotic probes. Any rogue mining company which attempted to exploit the moon in any but the most controlled and supervised methods (tiny robotic probes in the oceans to extract Rubidium and Caesium) would face an immediate liquidation of all assets and a war of extermination against its leadership. Even what little mining that is allowed is planned to be completely discontinued at the first sign of transoceanic voyaging on the part of the sentients.
Tloxipeuhca is the last world in the system to harbor life.


Xantico - This gas giant, about the size of Neptune, contains a peculiar quantity of Sodium, which stains its clouds magenta. Other than that, it is a garden variety gasbag. Its moons are all lifeless. Two of them, Tlatlauhqui and Nanahuatl, are of interest in that they contain large quantities of liquid Nitrogen.

Ixquimilli - One of the two "Outer Terrestrials", considered planets by virtue of their Mercurian masses, they were likely moons ejected from either Xantico or Zacatzontli. Ixquimilli has a high albedo, making it bright in the night sky of Atlacamani. The world is frozen solid nitrogen, water, and ammonia ice, with a rocky core and some deposits of Iodine, which hint at an origin with Zacatzontli.

Oxomo - less visible than Ixquimilli, but larger. It is also frozen solid, and one of the coldest objects in the system.

Zacatzontli - A gas giant, slightly smaller than Neptune, containing some quantity of Iodine, which stains its clouds purple. A lonely world at the dim edge of the system, named after the god of the night-road. Beyond it lay the Outer Belt. Its moons, while not frozen solid, are very cold. Itzpapalotlcihuatl and Cihuacoatl are famous for having geysers of liquid nitrogen.

Transzacatzontlian Belt (Outer Belt) - A lonely field of ice-balls no larger than Luna dwells here. Very unexplored, but may contain resources yet untapped.

One last world, the Earth sized Miquiztlitecuhtli is a dim marker of the boundary of the system. No one knows just how it got there, or exactly what it's made of, but its mass has sparked debate over whether it should be classified as an Outer Belt Object or the 15th Planet.

The Comet Sphere - like Sol's Oort Cloud. The origin of comets.

http://i.imgur.com/dlrjIcA.png
 
Last edited:
The detail is great, particularly how the life on the various planets isn't just different carbon copies (haha) of terrestrial life. That'd be a fun system for exploration and colonization.
 
I was struck by a flight of fancy, and here is the result: the growth of the Stargate Program, from NORAD initiative to UN agency. A more realistic awareness than seen in the show, with a slower timeframe.

The USA initially tried to keep the Stargate a secret from everyone, but being run in the basement of NORAD meant Canada became aware almost as soon as gate travel become a regular occurrence. After Apophis first attacked Earth, the program was expanded to include the other Anglosphere states, as there was no way to hide the fact from the other Five Eyes states.

When Thor's Replicator infested ship, the Beliskner, crashed as a result of SG-1s attempt to prevent it from landing, it was detected in atmosphere by a Chilean telescope, a Japanese satellite, and the French and Russian navies. These states were brought into the program soon after.

Once Atlantis was discovered, the program became much more international in scope, incorporating the states shown in SGA, as well as a few likely US-friendly additions left out (Israel, India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil).

When Atlantis was forced to depart the Pegasus galaxy and landed on the Earth, combined with the attack on Washington by the Lucien Alliance, the program could no longer be hidden and was brought into the public eye, with the program transferred to the United Nations. It is now managed by the United Nations Stargate Command. The US, as hosts of the gate, has veto power over almost every aspect, including how much access states like Iran and North Korea have.

I don't think Israel would be included, since they pretty much sell calssified information to the highest barter as it is.

Also, while a few things were iffy, I don't think it'd be that hard to keep the program from being public knowledge for another two decades.

Incidentally, while I don't remember the Lucien Aliance DC thing, Atlantis was cloaked the whole time and set down gently, so even though it was in San Francisco bay, no one would've known it was there unless they ran into it (and I doubt that's where the city stayed).
 
I think I've got a near final version of my big ass rail map of the future. Just have to figure out a better logo. Its tough.
I've made it so you can scroll and zoom.
Probably means nothing to most people but north eastern folk will get it.
I wonder, can anyone tell me, what do the grey shapes mean? I wonder whether its intuitive or I'm the only one who gets it without a guide.

http://www.ctallentire.com/image/bernra.svg
 
You mean there's a website dedicated to posting maps of unbuilt and proposed Light Rail and Subway Systems? :eek: That's my kinda' site. :D

Well, it's basically just me making outside observations, and usually has little to nothing to do with actual proposals.

You mentioned on the other site that Manchester could support both a 'Metro' and a 'Metrolink'. Where would you see the trams operate now that their more-distant destinations (and beyond) are covered by the trains?

Where did I say that? Anyway, I think this would mostly replace Metrolink, but in some parts of the city (Hulme, Chorlton, Crumpsall, Trafford Park, etc) which aren't served that well by the Metro a supplementary tram or trolleybus system would probably be beneficial.

Did you contemplate routing the Yellow Line down through Oxford Road (adjacent to Whitworth Park)? Not only is this a hub for the students and an important transport corridor into the city, but it could serve as a central node for communities in Hulme (a little neglected on the map) as well as the ever-important 'Curry Mile'! Maybe an earlier branch of the line (or a Northern-linesque loop) could take it down through Fallowfield and into Didsbury?

That would've been a good idea, were I not trying to make both branches coterminous for as long as possible. I imagine this could be a possible extension (Stockholm extended its blue line in a similar fashion, so it isn't unheard of).

I checked to see if both the major football stadiums were served on the network and, of course, they were. The above-ground Metrolink has a major depot almost adjacent to the station at Old Trafford; in this map, it seems that the Red Line remains underground until clear of the Freight Terminal. Where would the main maintenance depot be? Stretford seems a likely candidate for me.

I may never have been to Manchester, but I know enough about the place to know that would be of massive importance. As for the depot, I'd imagine each line has one, as is general practice with systems of this type. The Red Line one could well be in the Stretford area, while the Blue Line one would be either in Audenshaw or Walkden, and the Yellow Line one in Stockport or Radcliffe.

I also thought that the subway could potentially reach Hadfield, as it would alleviate surface-rail surfaces into the city from the east.

The Blue Line branch to Hyde (which runs next to the M67) would be well-situated to take over the rail line to the Hadfield/Glossop area.

The development of the Metrolink played a decent part in the success of the Salford Quays development. I'm not certain that this solution would be quite as beneficial...

You're probably right about that, but there's still an important junction there, so while it wouldn't be quite as well served as IOTL, it's still covered.

Sorry for the inundation of questions; I found this idea to be very appealing. ;)

Oh, don't apologise for that. I can always use some constructive criticism.
 
Here's a finished version of Tloxipeuhca, with labels for important continents, mountain ranges, and seas.

View attachment 220638

Am I assuming this is the same planetary system, i.e. Tloxipeuhca orbits (finally) around Huitzilopochtli?

EDIT: I love that system. Can I post a link or a copy of the system to Chris Wayan, the founder of Planecotopia?

EDIT2: I already mailed him the link (I have been in contact with Mr. Wayan over e-mail several times),, as I saw that Maps'n'Graphics does not require registration to view.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Agreed that Solar System's fantastic.

Also, cross-posting my last MotF entry as I didn't do so before.
So it's a bit closer to a schematic than a map, but I've checked with Krall and it should be alright. That said, if people generally feel it's not really enough of a map, I'm happy to withdraw it. Pretty self-explanatory otherwise.

mof92_by_imperatordeelysium-d76kppx.png
 

Goldstein

Banned
I hope it qualifies as a map, as I don't know where to put it.

THE 4 PRIMARY LAWS OF ELEMENTAL INTERACTION:

1-There are two forms of interaction: quantitative and qualitative.
1.1-Qualitative interaction is responsible for transmutation.

2-Elements are classified in two poles: masculine and feminine.
2.1-Certain elements show a neutral polarity.
2.2Trans-polar interaction can be quantitative, but never qualitative.

3-Cardinal elements are responsible for the formation of all the other elements.
3.1-A cardinal element cannot be obtained by transmutation.

4-The slightest disturbance during a qualitative interaction will interrupt the process, save for interactions that involve iron.
4.1-Disturbance during a qualitative interaction with iron will produce an aberrant element.

Ars Magna2.jpg
 
Top
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top